HATTIESBURG, Miss. ? Monique Jones off-balanced shot at the buzzer lifted the South Alabama women’s basketball team to a huge 76-74 road victory Tuesday night over Southern Miss at Reed Green Coliseum.
“I had confidence in myself and knew I would make the shot,” Jones said of her game-winning shot. “I knew I had enough time to get the shot off and Shakira (Nettles) gave me a great pass. Thankfully it went in.”
USA (8-1) will now have a nine-day break in between games and not return to the hardwood until the Lady Jags host Southern on Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Center. Southern Miss falls to 6-3 with the loss
Jeanette Tucker was one of three players to finish in double figures, along with Jessica Starling (11) and Jones (10). Pauline Love and Stephanie Helgeson each recorded 17 points to lead the way for Southern Miss. Love also recorded a game-high 15 rebounds.
“This team has responded in a number of different ways throughout this young season and different player have responded at different times,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. “Tonight was no different. We had Jessica Starling step up and make some good plays for us tonight. In (USM's) building with a 12-point lead in the second half, we were able to withstand a run by them to give them the lead again, but we had enough fight in us to take it back from them and ultimately finish the game. This is a great road win for us against a real good Southern Miss team.”
Erica Williams nailed a three-pointer at the 14:47 mark of the first half to give USM the early 12-6 lead, but Amanda Leonard drained a trey of her own two minutes later from the left corner to ignite an 11-2 Lady Jag run. Siedah Banks put South Alabama up 17-14 when the freshman point guard converted an old-fashioned three-point play with just under 10 minutes to go in the period. Over the next several minutes, the two clubs went back-and-forth. With USA holding a two point advantage at 29-27 with two minutes, 32 seconds before the intermission, Southern Miss’ Kendra Reed started a 10-2 Lady Eagle run to close the half for Southern Miss and Andrea Barber’s bucket just before the horn, sent USM into the lockerroom with a six point lead (37-31).
Ra’Shawna Sippio led USA offensively in the first 20 minutes of play, recording seven of her points in the half. USM had three players record six points to lead the way in the first half. South Alabama didn’t help itself much in the first half, shooting 22.2 percent (2-of-9) from beyond the arc and 42.9 percent (3-of-7) from the charity stripe.
In the second half, Jones brought the Lady Jags to within one at 40-39 when the senior from Ferriday, La., knocked down a three at the 17:13 mark. The basket for Jones was her first field goal of the night. With the score knotted back up at 44-44, Jessica Starling and Banks nailed two straight treys to put USA back out in front 50-44 with just under 13 minutes left in the half. South Alabama four minutes later increased its lead to double digits (59-49) when Starling drained her second three-pointer of the second stanza, this one coming at the 9:11 mark from the left wing. With USA holding a 63-51 advantage with just under eight minutes to go, USM reeled off 13 unanswered points and reclaimed the lead (64-63) on a Helgeson bucket at the 5:32 mark. Neither team was able to pull away from the other down the stretch, setting up the thrilling ending.
With 37.9 seconds left in regulation, Love (USM) hit her second trey of the night from the left corner to briefly put the Golden Eagles up by one (73-72). Patriece Burnner, who had struggled from the line for most of the night, calmly toed the stripe after being fouled and sank both of her attempts to put USA back out in from with 18.3 seconds left. Southern Miss’ Amber Eugene looked as if she were going to send the game into overtime after hitting one of her two attempts from the free throw line with under six seconds to play, but Nettles found Jones along the baseline, setting up the heroic shot for Jones. The Jag senior was fouled on the play and her field goal went in at the buzzer, but by rule, 0.4 seconds had to be put back on the clock. Jones missed her free throw and time expired to give USA the two-point victory.
